


Ninth Day of Christmas

by mightbeababygay



Series: 12 Days of Ballum-mas [6]
Category: EastEnders (TV)
Genre: Arguements, Canon Divergence, Christmas Party, Established Relationship, Fluff and Angst, Reindeer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-17
Updated: 2019-12-17
Packaged: 2021-02-24 16:28:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21820942
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mightbeababygay/pseuds/mightbeababygay
Summary: “So,” Callum started, fingertips running over the back of Ben’s hand where they were connected over the table on the train, Lexi asleep in the window seat next to him after a busy morning of excitement and running around. “Sam just text me about the staff Christmas party.”“Which work is this for?” Ben hummed playfully, curling his ankle around Callum’s under the table.“Police.” Callum licked his bottom lip before he continued to speak, unable to stop the butterflies in his stomach. “He wanted to know if I was coming.”--It's Callum's Christmas party and he'd love nothing more than Ben to go with him, it's just-, well, Ben and the police don't get along that great, do they?
Relationships: Callum "Halfway" Highway/Ben Mitchell
Series: 12 Days of Ballum-mas [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1559044
Comments: 11
Kudos: 104





	Ninth Day of Christmas

**Author's Note:**

> hi everyone, thank you for the comments so far on this series, I'm glad you're liking it!!
> 
> Not beta'd - all mistakes are my own. 
> 
> Tumblr/Twitter - mightbeababygay - let me know what you think!
> 
> Enjoy! x

“Here you go, Princess.” Ben smiled as he crouched down, snapping the carrots into smaller pieces for Lexi so she’d have more. They’d decided to spend the morning feeding the reindeer, the snow softly falling around them. It was supposed to be his and Lexi’s morning but as usual (and completely fine by Ben), Lexi had demanded Callum had come too. 

So the three of them, bundled up in scarves, jumpers and beanies, caught the train to the local Christmas Market - purely for the reindeer. Lexi was, of course, out of her mind with excitement. Constantly talking and even stealing Ben’s phone to learn about as many facts as she could - both about Santa’s reindeer and others. 

“If the reindeer are here, how are they getting to Santa?” Lexi pondered, looking up at Callum for the answer before her attention was quickly taken back to the reindeer that were in front of her. 

“Well,” Callum paused, brain racking for any idea as he looked over to Ben for any kind of help which, of course, was wishful thinking. All he got in return from his boyfriend was a cheeky grin, eyebrows raised as he waited for Callum’s answer. 

He looked between Lexi and her father, identical expressions on their faces as they waited for his answer. “It’s because-, they can fly right? So on Christmas Eve, they all fly back to Santa. They’re here to keep an eye on everyone, make sure they’re behaving.”

Deep in thought over what Callum had told her, Lexi stepped closer to the fence, feeding the first reindeer a carrot. “How do they fly if they’ve not got any wings?” She questioned, stroking the reindeer along his nose carefully. 

“Nobody knows.” Ben piped up, finally coming to rescue his boyfriend from his inquisitive daughter. “Santa doesn’t like to share his secrets.”

“But you told me secrets were bad? Is Santa bad?” Lexi accused, folding her arms over her chest. 

“No baby, Santa isn’t bad.” Ben couldn’t help but smile. “Santa’s allowed to lie because he’s magical. He makes Christmas happen. And Christmas wouldn’t be as fun if we knew all the secrets, would it?”

“Would I still get presents?”

“I-,” Ben paused. He didn’t want to upset his daughter and he definitely didn’t need her stropping for the rest of the morning. “No. But only because Santa’s secret would be out and he wouldn’t be able to use his magic anymore.”

“Fine.” Lexi sulked, bottom lip jutted out as she wanted the reindeer. “I guess Santa can keep his secrets, then. Even if I’m not allowed them.”

“Good girl.” Ben praised, pressing a kiss to the top of her beanie-covered head before standing back to full height. 

Callum couldn’t help but watch on fondly, eyes shining bright with love and admiration for the two of them. “And then when you’re a big girl, Santa will come and share his secret with you.” He promised, handing Lexi his carrot for the reindeer. 

“But I am big girl, daddy Callum.” Lexi huffed, full body pressing up against the fence to get closer.

“I know. Just an even bigger girl, like your dad’s age.” 

“But he’s old!” Lexi’s eyes widened. “I don’t wanna be that old.”

Callum couldn’t help the bark of laughter at Lexi’s response, grinning over at his boyfriend. “Ancient, ain’t he?”

“Excuse me.” Ben huffed, glaring over at Callum playfully. “You’re even older than me.”

“But he’s cool!” Lexi chipped in.

“Old and uncool?” Ben raised his eyebrows, grabbing Lexi by the waist to pick her up. “Maybe we should feed you to the reindeers?” He teased, pretending to throw her over the fence. 

“No!” Lexi giggled, trying to squirm away. “No, daddy!”

Ben grinned, spinning her around playfully before placing her back down on the ground. He watched on as she giggled, running over to Callum and wrapping her arms around his legs.

“Save me, daddy Callum!” Came her muffled response. “He’s trying to feed me to the reindeer!”

Callum grinned, scooping her up into his arms, resting her on his hip. “I’ll protect you from the evil man.” He teased Ben with a smirk.

\--

“You want some lunch?” Callum offered. “My treat.”

“Since you’re paying.” Ben teased, taking Callum’s hand in his own glove-covered ones as they both watched Lexi, a few paces in front of them. “Gotta grab those opportunities whilst I can, we both know how cheap you are.”

“Oi!” Callum gave Ben a light shove. “I don’t pay because you don’t let me. ‘Oh, I’ll get this, I’ll get that’,” he mimicked Ben. 

“First of all, I don’t sound like that.” Ben pointed a warning finger at Callum. “Secondly, you secretly love me paying for everything. Wouldn’t be surprised if that’s all you were with me for.”

“Of course it is.” Callum muttered sarcastically with a roll of the eyes. “It ain’t anything else, is it?”

“What else would it be?”

“Put it this way, it ain’t your cooking.” Callum winked, smirk on his face.

“You slag!” Ben chuckled, shoving Callum back in response. 

“What’s a slag, daddy?” Lexi frowned, looking up at her father.

“Um,” Ben blinked. “It’s a bad word, baby. We don’t say it, okay? ‘Specially not around your mother.”

“You mean like how we’re not allowed to say ‘fuck’?” questioned Lexi, as she took Callum’s spare hand.

“Exactly like that.” Ben nodded. “Don’t look at me like that.” He hissed at Callum who was looking at him with a look of disbelief. 

“What have you been teaching your daughter?” He asked in response, teasing grin on his face. 

“Nothing, she overheard me once. That’s all.”

“What were you doing?”

“I stubbed my toe.” Ben sniffed, small grin playing out across his face. 

“Is that what they’re calling it now?” Callum couldn’t help but laugh, pulling Ben into his chest. 

“I did!”

\--

“So,” Callum started, fingertips running over the back of Ben’s hand where they were connected over the table on the train, Lexi asleep in the window seat next to him after a busy morning of excitement and running around. “Sam just text me about the staff Christmas party.”

“Which work is this for?” Ben hummed playfully, curling his ankle around Callum’s under the table. 

“Police.” Callum licked his bottom lip before he continued to speak, unable to stop the butterflies in his stomach. “He wanted to know if I was coming.”

“Oh.” Ben nodded his head, hand coming up to scratch the side of his head. “You can go. Don’t need to ask for my permission. It’ll be a good bonding experience for you. Hopefully not too much bonding but it’ll be good for you. You should go.”

“I wasn’t asking for permission.” Callum sighed as he watched Ben begin to close off. He grabbed his hand firmly, squeezing it. “And it ain’t like that. Not when I’ve got someone as handsome as you.”

Ben tilted his head to the side, smirk on his face as he thought for a brief second. “That’s true.”

“So modest.” Callum rolled his eyes. “What I was gettin’ at was, do you wanna come with me?”

“You being serious?” Ben snorted. “You wanna take me, a well-known person of interest, a Mitchell, to a christmas party? At the police station? What am I, their christmas bonus?”

“Ben, come on.” Callum looked around the train. This was definitely not the place to have one of their rows. They argued like they loved - intense and full of heart, passion. They were also equally stubborn, they could argue for hours on end. But at the end of the day, they loved one another and eventually, they'd just get over themselves, crawling back to one another at the first opportunity. 

“Oh, so now it’s my fault? I should be what, grateful? That you’re inviting me out to your work party?”

“I ain’t saying that. I just thought maybe you’d want to come to share that moment in my life, with me.”

“It’s a work party, Callum. It ain’t your wedding day.” Ben rolled his eyes, leaning back on his chair causing their hands to part. 

“Why do you always do this? I thought we were over this drama.” 

“Why do I-, you want me to come with you to the police station,” Ben snapped, sitting forward in his chair, finger pointing down into the table. “Where you can walk me round like some kinda prized pig while they all laugh at me, at us, behind our backs? Oh an ex-convict and a trainee copper, shagging? Fuckin’ hilarious.”

“Right.” Callum swiped at his bottom lip, jaw clenched as he stared out of the window, arms folded across his chest. “Glad to know what you really think about us. What I mean to you.”

“I didn’t say that, did I?” Ben snarled, hand slapping down on the table in frustration. 

“What else was I supposed to take from that?” hissed Callum in response, voice low. He didn’t need the whole train hearing their domestic. “You know what? It was my mistake for asking, for thinking you were mature enough to not turn into a drama queen.”

“I’m the drama queen?” Ben scoffed, finger pressed against his chest as he pointed at himself. “Me? When you’re having a strop over me not wanting to come to a party with you? It’s stupid, Callum. You ain’t even going to know anyone there!”

“Well maybe I wanted to take this chance too! Maybe, just maybe, I wanted you there with me, to support me for once.”

“‘For once’?” Ben shook his head in disbelief, accent thick the angrier he got. “So I didn’t give up The Arches to support you? Give up my dad’s approval? I didn’t wait around for fuckin’ months, like a mug, whilst you played happy familes with Whitney? Didn’t let you come crying to me about being lonely? And even afterwards when you wanted to be friends with her? Of course I didn’t support you, huh?”

Callum clenched his jaw, swallowing past the lump in his throat, unable to look at Ben anymore. “Forget I said anything.” He muttered out, watching out the window as the city blurred past them from the speed of the train and definitely not from the tears filling his eyes.

\--

Letting out a soft sigh as he looked in the mirror, Callum shook his head to himself. They hadn’t spoken since the train, awkward tension filling the room that Lexi definitely noticed but was wise enough not to say anything. Not when they were both in the same room, at least. 

Lola, on the other hand, didn’t mind saying her piece as soon as she noticed something was wrong when her and Jay had came home. In fact, he could still hear her yelling at Ben downstairs. 

If Callum was being honest with himself, it probably was his fault. He should’ve thought about asking Ben and the repercussions of that before he opened his mouth. And he was definitely wrong about Ben not being supportive of him. The younger man had been nothing but supportive of him - through everything. 

Grabbing his coat from their bedroom, Callum took a deep breath to calm his nerves before stepping down the stairs, Lola’s voice getting louder and louder with each step. 

“Going somewhere?” Jay asked, eyebrows raised as he took in Callum’s outfit, the smell of his cologne wafting down the stairs. 

“Christmas party.” Callum gave him a tight smile. “Ben in there?” He pointed over his shoulder at the closed kitchen door, even if the question was stupid. Of course he was in there, who else would Lola be yelling at. 

“Yeah. Lola’s sortin’ him out. Don’t worry.”

Ignoring Jay, Callum stepped over to the kitchen door, pulling it open as silence descended into the house. He looked between the two of them, Ben leaning against the counter with his arms folded and head bowed. Lola gave him a small smile, squeezing his arm as she stepped around him and out of the room, without a word. 

“Alright?” Callum asked hesitantly as he shut the door behind him, walking over to stand opposite Ben. 

“Problem with these hearing aids instead of the old one is, I can’t turn them off so easily without her noticing.” Ben joked which fell flat as the two of them just looked at one another. 

“I didn’t mean for her to…” Callum trailed off, small sigh coming from his nose. “Listen, I am sorry. What I said on the train, complete bullshit. Shouldn’ta’ said it.” He stepped forward closer to Ben.

“You smell nice.” Ben commented in response. “That for Sam?”

“Ben-,”

“I’m joking.” He gave Callum a small smile, reaching forward to fix the collar of his shirt for him.

“Right.” Callum nodded his head, tongue swiping across his bottom lip. “‘Course you are.”

“You off, then?” Ben cleared his throat, dropping his hand. 

“Yeah. Thought I should come sort...this out, before I left. Don’t go to bed on an argument, n’ all that.” 

“What bed you gettin’ into? Should I be worried?” Ben smiled, clearly trying to smooth the tension over with his humour. 

“I was hoping yours.”

Ben’s smile quickly morphed into a wide grin, dimples showing as he gave a slight nod of the head. “I guess that would be okay. You are my boyfriend, after all.”

Callum grinned, hand cupping the back of Ben’s head as he leaned down to connect their lips, loving the moan that came from Ben’s throat. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.” Ben hummed softly, pulling Callum back in by the lapels of his coat. It was Callum’s turn to moan as he grasped at Ben’s hips, the two of them touch starved from the day they’d had. 

“You’re gonna make me late.” Callum gasped as he broke the kiss, minutes having passed. 

“Don’t care.” mumbled Ben in response, head nudging forward to connect their lips. “Sure you don’t wanna stay?” He asked, trailing hot, wet kisses along Callum’s jaw. “Make-up sex is definitely on the table.”

Callum let out a soft moan, head tipping back as his hands dug into Ben’s hips. “When you say it like that.”

“That a yes?” Ben gasped into Callum’s ear, teeth grazing over the lobe.

Dragging himself (reluctantly) out of the haze of lust, Callum gave a small shake of the head. “Later, yeah?” He whispered, swallowing thickly. 

Ben sighed as he pulled back, dropping his hands. “Really? You’re dropping me for a Christmas party?” He pouted, cheeks flushed.

“You could always come with me.” Callum smiled, lips swollen as he brushed his thumb against Ben’s cheekbone. “Get a hotel for the night? Can be as loud as we want for a change.” He murmured, nudging their noses together. 

“What do you take me for, some kinda dirty stop-out?” Ben smirked.

“Is that a no?”

“Let me just go get changed.” 

\--

“Do you think they’ll notice we’re late?” Callum asked, nerves clear in the tone of his voice as he smoothed down his shirt with a sweaty palm.

“It’s a party, babe. They’re probably already drunk and shagging against the filing cabinet.” Ben took Callum’s hand in his to stop him from faffing around with his clothes anymore.

“That’s gross.” Callum turned his nose up.

“It’s what happens at Christmas parties.” Ben gave an innocent shrug. 

“What would you know?” Callum snorted, squeezing Ben’s hand as he pulled the door open, letting Ben through first. 

“I might have crashed one or two in my time.” Ben smirked, leaning up to press a kiss against Callum’s flushed cheek. “I might have also been the one up against said filing cabinet.”

“Of course you were.” Callum chuckled, taking two bottles of beer from the free bar, handing one to Ben. “Doesn’t even surprise me in the least.”

“Callum, right?” The two of them were interrupted by a middle aged man, grey suit which was slightly too big for him, making him appear scruffy and unkept. “I’m Alan. We met at the last week. At the welcome talk.”

Choking on his drink, Ben took a step back in a futile attempt not to be seen as Callum shook Alan’s hand, the two of them soon turning to face Ben.

“Oh, Ben, this is-,” Callum started, only to be interrupted by Ben. 

“Alan. I know, we've met. Although I know him better as ‘Officer Smith.” He held up in his drink in acknowledgement. “He actually arrested me under false pretences. Naughty naughty.” Ben tutted, small, sarcastic grin across his face. 

“Right.” Callum nodded, clearly feeling wrong footed by the two men already knowing each other. “Well, Alan, this is Ben.” He finished the introduction to fill the silence. 

“How do you...uh, know each other?” Alan asked, shifting from one foot to the other. 

“He's my boyfriend.” Callum announced proudly, grin on his face as pressed his hand against the small of Ben's back. 

“I see.”

“Problem?” Ben hissed, spine tense and ready for a fight - even in a room full of police officers. “Thought you'd be happy, he's filling your diversity quota, ain't he?”

“Ben,” Callum muttered quietly with a squeeze of the hip. “Just leave it, please.”

“I-, I didn't say that.” Alan stumbled over his words. “My daughter is bisexual, I'd never…”

“Well, that's alright then, ain't it? You can say whatever you please cos’ your daughters bi.” Ben gave a sarcastic chuckle. 

“I didn't mean that. I just meant you...and him. Together. Ain't exactly going to look good for him, is it?” 

“‘He’ is here, you know?” Callum rolled his eyes, clearly fed up at the situation. 

“When you find something to actually arrest me for, let me know. Until then, you ain't got anything to discriminate against him.” Ben warned, dangerous glint in his eye. “Now, ain't you got a tail to pin on the donkey?” He nodded with his beer bottle behind him. 

“Go on, then.” sighed Ben after Alan had scuttled away, leaving the two of them alone. “Start your yelling at me.”

“Who said I was yelling at you?” Callum cupped Ben's cheek, hand cool from the beer bottle. “Woulda been nice to get a word in but I'm glad that you defended yourself, defended us. Why would I be mad about that?”

“Because he's going to be your boss soon?” Ben couldn't help but lean into Callum's touch, pressing a kiss to his inner wrist. 

“And if he can't accept who I'm with, then I don't want him as my boss.” 

“But you...I thought you really wanted this job?” Ben frowned.

“I do.” Callum agreed, shuffling forward to press their foreheads together. “But I want you more. You're more important than any job.”

“Oh,” Ben whispered, stunned for a second before he leaned up to connect their lips in a sweet kiss. “I love you.”

“I love you too, baby.” Callum smiled, pad of his thumb brushing against his cheekbone. “Don't cry.” He laughed softly, noticing Ben's eyes welling up. 

“I aint. It's my contacts.”

\--

**Author's Note:**

> Part 10 is coming Thursday featuring Christmas Dinner at the Mitchell's!!


End file.
